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Hi. Today I went to see a play of the Wizard of Oz, at the Sturts theatre in Cornwall. It took a while to get there, but we thought it was worth it, as we’ve seen other great plays there in the past; Peter Pan, Wind in the Willows… I’m still not really sure what I think about it, as I’ve seen better, but as it was not as professional as things like the Lion King, it is growing on me.

Please Note, I took this picture off their website as I didn’t take any pictures

There were many things I thought were done well, such as the amount of parts that were cast; people were always acting as animals, trees, plants, etc, which helped create the scenes, as they didn’t have any main backgrounds. They also made very good use of the space and props that they had, because as this wasn’t entirely professional, at least not like a massive London play, they didn’t have lots of different sets and scenes, and they made use of the ne they did have, (Grey, with stairs coming down in directions) and used people, rolling scenes and effects to make it almost as good as if they had better resources.

As The Wizard of Oz is a musical, the main thing that was definitely needed were good singers, that could also act. This was a good feature and I think they cast most of their characters well. There was also a large selection of musicians, that played many instruments, meaning that the music went really well with the singing.

I know that this isn’t their fault, and probably didn’t happen in the other performances that happened, but at the beginning, the sound was a bit off, Dorothy’s microphone a bit off, and the music too loud to be able to hear the actors. This thing could probably be classed as a good or a bad thing, but in the performance, there was an obvious star to the show; the lion. He was given all the jokes, he made some up as he went along, he was clearly the best singer, and his acting was the funniest and with most expression. The only bad thing about this, is that its hard to accept the other actors when the lion is there.

Overall, it was a good performance, and I and my family did have a good time seeing it. There were a few things I would have changed, but that can’t be changed now, and I would recommend you go and see it, or any play at that theatre, to see what you think.

Yesterday I went to London to see The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. I don’t generally like London, so I don’t think I was looking forward to it as much as the rest of my family were…but in the end I enjoyed it as much as everyone else. It took an hour and a half to reach the stop we wanted on two trains, and after, we had to walk to a restaurant to stop for lunch. We ended up eating at Côte, a french restaurant which we had never eaten at before. It turned out really nice, and we all enjoyed it- even though I didn’t eat particularly french food!- I ate chips and salad, with a massive praline crêpe for dessert, shown below.

After lunch we made our way to the Lyceum theatre where the Lion King was being held. It wasn’t as big as I had expected which calmed me a little as I don’t really like crowded places, and we managed to get fairly good seats which meant we could see the stage clearly enough. After the play started, I grew fairly optimistic of the whole thing, the amazing costumes just one factor. The animal costumes weren’t made to look like real animals, they were cleverly designed to move with sticks or wires, but it was clear to see the actor inside or on the produced animal. But when the stage turned dark and you could only see their silhouettes, the costumes and masks made it hard to tell whether it was a real animal or costume…!

The sets were brilliant too, at least fifteen different scenes that slid down into place at the right moments. They were very cleverly designed and were used at their full potential. I don’t think there was a thing about it I didn’t like, the songs were the best i’ve heard in a musical, and the actors skilled and talented, just right for their parts. I would thoroughly recommend going to see int if you have the chance, as it is one of the best experiences in London i’ve ever had. The link to The Lion King website is down below if you want to find out any info.